


Beautiful Struggle

by sdwolfpup



Category: The Wire
Genre: Child Death, Drugs, Embedded Video, Fanvids, Gen, Gun Violence, Guns, Police Brutality, Video, Video Format: Streaming, Violence, child harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 22:04:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10817655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sdwolfpup/pseuds/sdwolfpup
Summary: "It all matters. I know we thought it didn't, but it does." – Ellis Carver





	Beautiful Struggle

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Violence against children in particular. Gunshots fired at screen/others. Fast cuts.
> 
> A/N: Thank you to elynross for clear-eyed and articulate – as ALWAYS – beta services. She is amazing at this and I’m grateful she’s recently taken my vids on! Thanks to annaalamode for being a supporter of this vid from way back and providing spot-on beta thoughts on the draft. Thanks to gwyn_r for giving me a shot in the arm when I was flagging in the middle. Thanks and love to fan_eunice for being part of the reason I finished this, and for giving me one of the greatest responses to my first complete draft that I could ever have hoped for.
> 
> Finally, whatever word is bigger than "thanks" to heresluck for EVERYTHING having to do with this vid. She was there at its inception: everyone sitting around talking about Wire vidsongs at VVC 2007. She’s been a one-woman cheerleading team since then, sending me encouraging emails even before I started working on it, promising she wouldn’t let me release a terrible vid when I was terrified to even begin. Then she responded with warmth and enthusiasm and insightful analysis to even the smallest snippet of vid-in-progress that I sent, and I saved every single one of those emails because they are basically pure drops of sunshine and love and they – and she – are the reason this vid got made at all. I’m pretty sure I’ve never been so emotionally in sync with someone while making a vid. This one is for her.

**Song:** Talib Kweli, "Beautiful Struggle"  
 **Spoilers:** For all 5 seasons

Stream at YouTube [here](https://youtu.be/iO_dh7ocIxI), or watch below:

Lyrics  
The revolution is here, the revolution is here, people  
I said it once, I'll say it twice  
You got to be ready  
The revolution is inside of you  
People, the revolution is here, yeah

The revolution's here  
No one can lead you off your path  
You'll try to change the world  
So please excuse me while I laugh (yeah)  
No one can change your ways (rock with me for a second)  
No one can lead you off your path (come on)  
You'll try to change the world  
So please excuse me while I laugh

Yo, I heard it said the revolution won't be televised  
But in the land of milk and honey there's a date you gotta sell it by  
Otherwise it just expires and spoils  
And these folks jump out the pot when the water too hot  
Cuz the fire boils inside  
You go to church to find you some religion  
And all you hear is conniving and gossip and contradiction and  
You try to vote and participate in the government  
And the motherfuckin Democrats is acting like Republicans  
You join an organization that know black history  
But ask them how they plan to make money and it's a mystery  
Looking for the remedy but you can't see what's hurting you  
The revolution's here, the revolution is personal  
They call me the political rapper  
Even after I tell 'em I don't fuck with politics  
I don't even follow it  
I'm on some KRS, Ice Cube, Chris Wallace shit  
Main Source, De La Soul, bumpin' "2Pacalypse Now"

The revolution's here (yeah)  
No one can lead you off your path (uh uh)  
You'll try to change the world  
So please excuse me while I laugh (ha ha, ha ha)  
No one can change your ways  
No one can lead you off your path (uh uh)  
You'll try to change the world ('scuse me)  
So please excuse me while I laugh

Yo, I speak at schools a lot cause they say I'm intelligent  
Nervous cause I'm dope, if I was whack I'd be irrelevant  
I'm like the dope in your tracks until your high is settled in  
You leaning to the left, the laughter's the best medicine  
But the troubles you have today you just can't laugh away  
Stay optimistic, they can change, it's gonna come like Donny Hathaway  
You have to pray, on top of that, act today  
Cuz opportunity shrivel away like Tom Hanks in "Cast Away"  
Everybody pass away, the past will pay, the family mourning  
Everybody act according to the season that they born in  
You fight in the streets, start bleeding 'til the blood is pouring  
In the gutter, mothers cry 'til the Lord be living by the sword and  
All that folks want is safety, they going gun crazy  
The same reason Reagan was playing war games in the '80s  
The same reason I've always rocked dog chains on my babies  
The struggle is beautiful, I'm too strong for your slavery

The revolution's here (yeah)  
No one can lead you off your path  
You'll try to change the world  
So please excuse me while I laugh  
No one can change your ways  
No one can lead you off your path  
You'll try to change the world  
So please excuse me while I laugh

It's a beautiful thing that's happening right now  
Right now G  
Yo, I'm rocking with my man Hi-Tek on the track right now  
We fighting the good fight  
The Beautiful Struggle  
Yeah, let's go

(So please excuse me while I laugh)


End file.
